Daily Archives: March 12, 2013

Somebody commented earlier today that offensive line depth gets him hot… here’s the kind of thing that turns me on:

… the early lead for breakout player of the spring goes to James DeLoach. The sophomore outside linebacker really started generating buzz toward the end of last season and that has only continued as the combination of physical maturity and athleticism is beginning to manifest itself with his play on the field. DeLoach is now running with the first team at strongside outside linebacker and is looking hard to beat out.

“DeLoach is looking real good,” said inside linebacker Ramik Wilson, who is also starting. “He’s coming off the edge real fast. We’ve been watching film and he and Jordan (Jenkins) are looking real good. James is setting the edge and making the ball bounce to us so we can make more tackles. He’s doing a good job.”

DeLoach signed with Georgia out of Jenkins County seemingly as a throw-in with his good buddy, noseguard Jonathan Taylor. But he has totally remade his body just a year into his career and has maintained his quickness despite carrying 265 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame.

Of course, if he doesn’t star at G-Day, that’ll be the end of it, right?

For some unexplained reason, Erik Ainge thinks now is a good time to start a Twitter bitch because SOD is selling his house. You’d think somebody who’s upset over the current state of the program would find Mike Hamilton be a more appropriate target.

I know it’s coming from a fan post over at Rocky Top Talk, so it’s just a random opinion, but, still, if this happened, it would be, like, the most Tennessee thing ever. Which is why I’m rooting for it. Get cracking, Butch!

Tennessee leads the division with eight of its top ten guys coming back. The bad news for the Vols is that magic didn’t work last season.

Tennessee returned 12 of its top 15 tacklers from 2011 and proceeded to have its worst defensive showing in school history last season. The Vols finished 107th nationally in total defense and gave up 37 or more points in eight of their 12 games.

And UT will be on its third defensive coordinator in as many years. That doesn’t bode well.

Meanwhile, none of the three presumed division leaders bring back many of their top tacklers: Florida will miss five of its top six, Georgia loses its top four and South Carolina loses the top four and six of the top eight.

Maybe it’s Vanderbilt by default. The Commodores weren’t bad last year and their top three tacklers and six of their top seven are coming back.

“We’ve just got tons of guys that can play multiple positions,” Andrews said. “We can almost form three-deep offensive lines now, which is something we haven’t been able to do in the past. With two guys out, especially, that’s a good bit of linemen. So we definitely have a lot of depth.”

It’s been so long since I’ve seen anything resembling quality depth on the o-line that you’ll have to pardon me if I wait on that until I get visual confirmation. (And if the line looks better on G-Day, is that because depth has improved, or because the defense is regrouping? Beats me.) I will say that I do hope Beard is a viable option to start at left tackle, because that will allow Friend to shift Gates back inside where he clearly belongs.

I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more about this between now and opening night at Clemson.

I can’t help but be more than a little fascinated by the dynamic playing out between the Big Ten, the ACC and Notre Dame. There’s little doubt that the Irish are the crown jewel of unaffiliated college programs. There’s even less doubt that Jim Delany would give his left nut to bring ND into his conference sphere because of what the school would contribute in value to the Big Ten Network.

But if rumors are to be believed, none of that is slowing Delany down. Depending upon whom you hear from, the Big Ten has made overtures to several ACC schools to leave and join the Big Ten. Nobody’s biting yet, but the uncertainty over Maryland’s $50 million exit fee has been cited as a factor. Who knows what happens if that figure is reduced? Anyway, if Delany’s strategy is to break down the ACC so that Notre Dame has to find a new home again, things could get a mite messy.

And who’s to say that if Delany pulls in a few more Maryland-like programs whose departures topple the ACC, Notre Dame doesn’t go running into the arms of anybody but Delany? I’m sure there wouldn’t be a lack of suitors if that day came. That would be quite the Pyrrhic victory.